obama, is in the air at this hour with chris christie touring some of the devastated areas along the shore of jersey. we'll expect to see him as he tours the ground later today. that's it for "power lunch." >> and a news conference from bloomberg on the way as well. "street signs" begins right now. stocks are trading but that is about all that is back to normal for millions of americans in the east. lower manhattan is still digging out from the flooding, unprecedented damage in new jersey. we should have some pictures, as tyler noted, from the president and the governor of new jersey shortly. gasoline increasingly hard to find as cars line up for hours in parts of new york and new jersey. and many stores that are open are running low of their supply. we've got every angle. all the developing stories, all hour on another special sandy storm "street signs," mandy.

brian, you are looking right now at video of president obama meeting with new jersey governor chris christie earlier today. the president touring the worst hit areas of the state this afternoon. let's run you through some of the latest headlines in the aftermath as we get down to business of cleaning up. at least 61 people have died in the united states as a result of sandy. most of them from new york, and also new jersey, as for those without power. the good news is the number is dropping. the bad news is there are still 6.1 million customers without power and folks in the hardest hit areas could also still be in the dark until next week. meanwhile, more than 19,000 flights have been canceled because of sandy. more on that later. more flights to be canceled, newark and jfk airports have reopened today. laguardia and teterboro remain closed. delta saying it may -- big "may" -- resume flights at laguardia tomorrow. new york governor cuomo says we can expect limited subway service restored to 14 of the mta's 23 lines tomorrow. of course, not a moment too soon

for the city's 5.3 million riders each weekday. and also long island's metro north railroad service will begin pretty much at 2:00 p.m. today which is right now here in the east. an important slice of normalcy came back to lower manhattan today as the new york stock exchange re-opened. it comes after the first two-day weather related close since 1888. bob pisani is there. bob, first question. how difficult is it to even get down there? >> well, if you've got a car, it was fine. in fact, that's how i got down here. but if you are taking a subway, no way. if you were going through new jersey, using all but the lincoln tunnel, couldn't do it. if you were going through, for example, amtrak, that line was not open. so public transit still a real problem here. let me just point out what we've been doing today in terms of the action, overall action. nyse really got exactly what it wanted. they wanted a nice quiet open. that's exactly what happened. the volume's been light to moderate so far. i anticipate it will pick up

towards the close. we'll get markets on close orders. hot stocks -- home repairs definitely the ones. the dow industrials have been -- we started on the up side but it's slowly drifting lower. fairly narrow trading range. bottom line is i think for a lot of people, the storm was more serious than some people anticipated. irene, a bit of a disappointment. this one was a little bit in the other direction. can you see that in the home repair stocks that i've been emphasizing. we've been talking about roofing as a major play for a week now. a lot of early players have had significant gains but today, look at these stocks moving 6% in a day. this is a real late investors in this game, roofing repair. but i think people underestimated. how about dredging and docking companies. great lakes. this is a very interesting play that not a lot of people talked about last week. there will be a big need to dredge out a lot of those harbors. armstrong another big play, they make flooring. overall you have a somewhat weak earnings picture.

en certain election next week where mr. bernanke is very much a part of the play and now you have hurricane sandy ate my homework as a possible excuse for weaker fourth quarter earnings. thank you very much, bob pisani. how is the first day of trading since hurricane sandy? let's ask managing director at lessard national markets. >> it is good to be back. two days seems like an etesht when you're trying to place a bet and express an opinion in this marketplace so it is very difficult to wait this out. obviously a terrible tragedy, this national disaster. but we have to balance out the fact that we are back in business with the fact that, as bob just pointed out, it is very difficult to get to new york right now. i would tell you that the volumes aren't three days worth of volumes all wrapped up in one. we'll see that normalize over the course of the week. >> indeed. it is horrible to talk about these things in light of the tragedy that's ensued.

but nonetheless, what are you doing in terms of making a buck? for example, where is the trade in the wake of the hurricane? >> one of the things you'll want to be very careful is on the overshoot. pisani just pointed out a few things. obviously people look at the home depots and lowlowe's and t a step further and look at briggs and strattons and some of the roofing names. once you guest past disaster, there is an overshoot. people pile into the trade, it gets very crowded and they pull back and get back to where they should be trading fundamentally. the overshoot on the other side is selling the insurance companies. remember this is going to cost insurance companies literally millions and millions of dollars. but they also at the end of the day probably get a rate increase so the long-term impact on the insurance companies is usually flattened out as well. just be very careful of the overshoot when you look at trading natural disasters like this.

>> thank you very much. president obama is touring the damage here in new jersey as we speak. kayla tausche, you are live in atlantic city. what are you seeing down there? >> well, mandy, i think you can probably see it behind me as well. an entire community turning out, hopeful to see a sighting of the president as well as their state's governor. unfortunately, apart from the landing of air force one, and a flyover of a fleet of blackhawk helicopters, we actually haven't seen that. it appears that the governor and the president have made their way farther north to places where the damage now that we've seen some footage and some documenting of the actual damage there appears to be much, much worse than what we've seen here in atlantic city. no doubt, though, you can see behind me the wreckage here is devastating as well. tons of evidence of flooding. i spoke to many residents who were talking about their own houses flooding and how they are attempting to get power and attempting to get the rebuilding process moving. for now, a rare day of sun after a string of storms, as we know.

so the community is gathering out here today. we have -- we're still waiting for news on exactly what the president and the governor will say at the end of this tour and what conclusions they will come to after seeing the jersey shore. no doubt, though, fema will be a huge part of this process of rebuilding. fema gave new jersey $275 million in the wake of hurricane irene and chris christie has repeatedly said that they will play a large role in the recovery here. we spoke to u.s. senator frank lautenburg just a moment ago here on the shore and he said that the response of fema has been "top flight." that he thinks all politics has been put aside and that the first responders did their job. they saw past the bureaucracy and they came in to play as soon as possible. that's according to senator frank lautenberg. that's the latest from here, you guys. back to you. >> kayla tausche, thank you. stay safe. a growing part of the storm story is that gasoline is getting hard to find in some areas. many gas stations are closed. in some cases the one that are open are seeing lines more than an hour long.

with supply dwindling, it is not surprising gas price futures are soaring today. brian schactman is at a gas station on long island where actually they are getting refilled as we speak, brian. what have they told you about the difficulty in getting gas? >> the cavalry has arrived. my man carlos behind me is one of the most popular men in all of long island. owner of this shell station was actually shocked when this truck drove up. had he no idea it was coming. he told his wholesalers that he needed gas. i had a sheet of paper it was his last check before the truck arrived. he was out of 2,000 gallons after having started at 8,500 for the day. he probably had only two hours left of gasoline. originally carlos was working out of queens. that had nothing. this was out of holtzville on long island. he is not even sure how much gasoline they have left. he came with a delivery of 7,600 gallons of regular unlead. he's done. he's actually been delivering gas since 4:00 a.m. this morning.

people that are getting gas here, some have been in line for upward of 45 minutes to getting people that come from two, three, four towns over telling me anecdotally there is no gas outside of these two spots for miles. okay? they're not only filling their cars, they're filling up for their generators. so what's fascinating about this is that yesterday when i was in freeport by a burnt-out building when the police told everyone to stay home, guys, people -- and there's no gas on long island, hundreds of cars driving to look at the wreckage. people need to stay home if they don't need to drive. tempers have been relatively okay here but people want their gas and they want it quickly so people are very happy to see this truck driver up. >> they put any limits on the gas? how much you can take? that's about 500 cars, 7,600 gallons. >> i don't know what the number is but they think that 7,600 will get them through today and into the first part of tomorrow. so they'll need another delivery if they want to keep it going. they have not raised prices as of yet so there's no examples of

any gouging, at least where i am right now. >> thanks very much, brian schactman. well, is the gas fear related to the supply issues, the power issues, or for to both? johni john, do you think that the spike we've seen in gas futures is warranted dr i do understand lots of people lining up to fill up their cars, but overall considering the expected demand construction, is it warranted? >> this spike in gasoline is also exclusively to the fact that it is expiration day and a lot of people got short. you can look at that front month and kind of ignore it. i don't really understand that gasoline is surging today actually in some of the outer months and heating oil is not. distillate inventories in the northeast are incredibly low. very, very low. like historically low and they have not moved. this doesn't really make a lot of sense. the other thing i would say, the physical market, the differential against the nymex price has not moved up ktoday.

i think that's showing some of the physical traders are leaning a little more toward the demand destruction side winning. i'm very glad to hear that delivery came from holtsville. that's a major terminal. i did hear earlier that that's open. it is terminals right now, not refineries that are the big problem. many of them are flooded. they are without power. even if every gasoline station tomorrow got its power back, if the terminals didn't get their powers back or they're not flood, they got a problem. >> i hear you on the futures contract but let's get more down and dirty here. if i can find a gas station that's open, there will probably be 50 cars in line minimum waiting to refuel. should people worry we could run out of gas the next couple of days? >> i don't think so. i noticed they said they didn't increase the price. i'm going to kind of channel a "wall street journal" op-ed piece today but it would almost be good if they did raise the price. if they raised it up $5 a gallon, everybody would be screaming. but at that point the economics

work to load up gasoline from many miles away, put it in a tanker truck and bring it to long island and the new york area. that's not going to be a very popular position but if they're going to hold down at around $3.80 at receipt tatail level, s of moving that gasoline to long island for the shortage are not there. if you want to get gas, that price should go up to $5 or $6 and that would move gasoline into the area. i know that's not popular, but do you want supply or not. >> how did we get to this situation, our infrastructure is so bad that we do have these lines -- i passed a gas station earlier today -- had no power, had to shut down. how have we gotten to this situation and is there any fix? >> i'm not an electricity expert. but one thing that's interesting about the new york area, major oil companies aren't really there anymore. exxon-mobil, et cetera, don't really have a big stake there. inventories have been held by a lot of smaller companies. as a result of that, they don't have as deep pockets and they have not been holding inventories to the level you

would expect a big company to. i do think that's made supplies a lot tighter than they would be normally. everybody likes to bash big oil but right now it wouldn't be all that bad if big wooil was very active in the new york area. they'd probably bring in supply just to make that happen. after katrina, colonial pipeline was down and there were a lot of mid stream companies that did spend a lot of money, drove trucks a lot of way to meet their customers' needs. i think you are maybe going to see that, even if the price isn't good. so it's -- it's not necessarily the disaster it looks like right now. >> we certainly hope not. reports are some atms are empty. coming up next, we'll ask a chase bank executive if money is going to be hard to fine. manhattan is still reeling and yet the new york city marathon is also still on. 50,000 runners, thousands of volunteers, hundreds of police officers, streets, however, shut down. is it time to call it off? ...you see they all have something very interesting in common.

they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students. let's solve this.

welcome back to "street signs." shares of groupon down nearly 8% today, also trading nearly four times its average ten-day volume. reports stating that the skid at one point triggered the nasdaq's short sale circuit breaker and also this stock getting a little bit of heat today because it is sending out alerts to new yorkers. we know a lot of these people can't take advantage of those deals. they're stuck without electricity without transportation. >> thank you very much, jackie. the stock exchange is open again for business today but the

rest of lower manhattan is only just starting to recover. the power is still off, stom streets are still flooded and many subway stations are also still under water. scott cohn is down there. scott, i actually saw you there early this morning. you haven't slept since sunday. it felt as if it was getting better though. is that assessment correct? >> reporter: well, in this limited area, mandy, if you were just sort of dropped here from -- who knows where, mars or something like that -- and were familiar with the wall street area, it would be as if nothing happened just to look at. take a quick glance at it. you see exchange workers, you see tourists, you see the regular assortment of people walking around down here. but of course, that is not the case and it is a very small ilan of recovery in this part of manhattan. eight square miles we're told that is completely without power and that just begins to tell the story of the flooding and so on. so people are here.

they're working. they're also staying in hotels. they're not getting home either. and trying to figure out how they're going to make a go of this for what could be a long haul. it's particularly amazing when you consider what this city has been through in the last three days just devastation. the storm, the flooding, the storm surge and the power outages that do persist. governor andrew cuomo was asked during a briefing a short time ago on his thoughts about this and what we all watched unfold. >> to see five feet of water on the west side highway. to see that ground zero site filling with water at such a frightening volume and hoping that the tide had crested. it was frightening. >> it was frightening. i can tell you there's been a lot of question about ground zero, the world trade center site, that did experience some

flooding. take a look at some pictures that we shot this morning from the 16th floor of the hilton right across the street. it looks a lot better than it did. in fact, it looks fairly dry. there is the transit hub that's under construction. fountain where the north tower of the world trade center once stood all looking relatively undamaged. we hope that's the case as they continue to try and assess what manhattan has been through. back to you. >> scott cohn, thank you, sir. so is there any risk of a cash shortage in new york area atms? gordon smith is head of consumer banking for jpmorgan chase. is this something people need to be worried about? >> i don't think so. we have almost 60% of our branches open in the affected areas. so that's about 600 branches and over 2,000 atms. we have teams of people working across the area making sure the cash runs down in any of those atms, that we get them replenished quickly. >> that's what you're doing. are there any areas you know of that do not have cash available?

>> downtown manhattan is still the heavily hit areas, mandy, and we're working really hard to keep getting further and further downtown where that sbranch trying to move generators down there to improve that situation. but that is still a real problem area. >> what's your biggest problem right now, gordon? >> the biggest problem is just kind of guesting out people to the right places, getting the branches unopen yet open. and trying to help our customers with the myriad of challenges that we -- that they have. it's just been horrendous situation for our customers and what we're trying to do really is just going to be there for them. so we open the branches early in the days before the storm. we stayed open late. and we're just trying to be there to meet our customers' needs. >> just outside of just your customers, what are the options available to people? we're hearing reports, for example, of credit unions and other organizations that might

be offering cash obviously with fees. >> yeah. yes, i have heard that, too, mandy. we have just been trying to help everyone in the community. i'm just going to some of our branches in manhattan. you see customers in the branches charging their cell phones, charging their laptops and kind of using our branches as a little bit of a hub for life. some power. we've had no power at home the last few days. you just know what it's like when you're off the grid. it's very difficult. >> indeed it is. thanks for joining us today. all right. so, yesterday i had a bit of a rant on infrastructure. it was a heartfelt piece, i can assure you, that had a lot to do with why we have the problems that we do. let's talk solutions. managing director and head of global infrastructure team at fitch ratings is with us. are we too broke to fix the problems that are broken? i mean broke financially? >> i done believe we are.

infrastructure is the lifeblood of the economy and if in fact you are going to run an economy, this needs to be a priority. mr. are probably difficult choices to be made, but i don't believe we are too broke to fix this mess. this is just too important. >> who's "they"? >> a combination of public and private funding. >> the public is broke. >> the public is broke. but when you're talking about food and you need food, you go get food and you make some choices not to get something else. >> but wouldn't it cost trillions of dollars to bring all of oufr frr infrastructure this country up to the 21st century? >> it will and it will take decades. it can't be done practically in the course of five or ten years. it will take a decade and we need to start now. >> where do we prioritize? >> i think the key is go back and look at the vulnerabilities in the infrastructure, in the power grid, in the water systems, in the roads, et cetera and begin to identify them, prioritize them and move forward. but without money it is very difficult for public authorities to move forward.

there needs to be a national strategy. >> we've got up here a great graph that shows "d" for many water waiways and other areas ie country. is there anything in our country that you think would get an "a" or "b"? >> it is hard for me to put it on that scale. clearly the system is less than adequate. these grades indicate that. i would not necessarily put a grade on it because it is hard for me to do that. >> yeah. burying power lines for example seems so simple. but yet we don't do it an we lose power for days. >> it is probably the one thing that has sort of been highlighted with this storm. >> wasn't it highlighted the last storm or is it the storm before that? >> exactly. you're right. >> so how many more storms do we need to have before it is a priority for this country? >> one that starts with an "s" and has an "it" at the end of it? that's the kind of storm we need to have in congress. >> you go back to the bridge that collapsed in minnesota. there was a lot of discussion at

that time we need to prioritize infrastructure. the problem is, clearly, issues at the political level in washington. people need to get their priorities. this is not a bipartisan -- this is a bipartisan issue. >> that graph was from the american society of civil engineers. this is a question a lot of are you asking. how in the world can they run the new york city marathon this sunday with so much of the city still shut down and so many people suffering? will there be a race before there's power? we're about to ask one of the city's top elected leaders where he stands -- next. es with 8 air, a crash management system and the world's only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons. small in size. big on safety. or that printing in color had to cost a fortune. nobody said an all-in-one had to be bulky. or that you had to print from your desk.

at least, nobody said it to us. introducing the business smart inkjet all-in-one series from brother. easy to use, it's the ultimate combination of speed, small size, and low-cost printing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're committed to offering you tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 low-cost investment options-- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like our exchange traded funds, or etfs tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 which now have the lowest tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 operating expenses tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lower than spdr tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and even lower than vanguard. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 that means with schwab, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 your portfolio has tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 a better chance to grow. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and you can trade all our etfs online, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 commission-free, from your schwab account. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so let's talk about saving money, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with schwab etfs. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 schwab etfs now have the lowest operating expenses tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-800-4schwab tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 or visit schwab.com

tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to open an account today. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 funding is easy tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with schwab mobile deposit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 investors should consider tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 carefully information tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 contained in the prospectus, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 including investment objectives, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 risks, charges, and expenses. you can obtain tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 a prospectus by visiting tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 www.schwab.com/schwabetfs. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 please read the prospectus tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 carefully before investing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 [ male announcer ] the exceedingly nimble, ridiculously agile, tight turning, fun to drive 2013 smart. ♪

welcome back to "street signs." shares of rim today are popping, up about 4%, confirming it's begun carrier testing of the new blackberry 10 devices. more than 50 carriers have begun the testing, it started last week and it will continue. they say they are on track to release those devices in the first quarter of 2013. a 4% pop on rim.

also, take a look at the airlines, folks. we know 13,000-plus flights have been canceled the last few days. the airlines not taking a big hit but watch jetblue because when you cancel a flight, you can only get a later flight out. jetblue basically going to be the hardest hit in this areas because their headquarters are in queens. those flight cancellations are going to have a huge impact. nearly 50,000 people expected to run in this week's new york city marathon. many are from out of town. because of the state of emergency that's still under way in the new york area, roux it really does bring up a very big question -- should new york just cancel the marathon to put those resources elsewhere. bill? should it be canceled? >> i've been all over the city today. the need is so great but we've got to get our economy going

again so i think we need to keep the marathon. we need as many people as can get here to be a part of it and help us on the road to recovery. >> does it bring economic stress? >> i know some people will not be able to make it but hopefully a lot will. the good news is a lot of the marathon route is away from the affected areas. i was down in coney island, brooklyn, couple hours ago, hard, hard hit but the marathon route largely stays away from the hardest hit areas. >> where they going to stay? where they going to eat? how they going to get around? >> much of the city of course does have power. a lot of our hotels do have power. we need -- look -- every dollar we can get. we need people to start getting involved here in our economy. it is going to be a long recovery. so it may not be everything we'd like it to be but it will sure help. >> but wait. aren't most of the hotels already full at capacity because a lot of people have been evacuated, for example, from lower manhattan are staying in said hotels and a lot of those hotels don't have power either? >> that's true in some cases. we're also hoping -- i talked to con ed earlier today -- that the

power will be up in a couple of days and those rooms will open up. but the bottom line is new york city's lost a lot of revenue these last few days, we've lot a lost of economic activity. we need to restart really quickly for the good of our people. >> we are hearing that mayor bloomberg is expected to make a decision on this and announce it some time soon. bill, thank you for taking time with us here at cnbc. on deck, we are going to help you learn how to navigate the long and complicated road of filling out an insurance claim. that's next. stocks for your portfolio?-payig with the fidelity stock screener, you can try strategies from independent experts and see what criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividend-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies and narrow down to exactly those stocks you want to follow. i'm mark allen of fidelity investments. the expert strategies feature is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account.

we are starting to focus on rebuilding here on wall street in the wake of sandy. the nyse opening today after its first two-day shut down since the s. and many of the nation's biggest banks got back to work as well. bank of america telling us customers that aside from the area's impacted by power outages, it was back to business as usual. and chase is opening nearly 600

branches in new york, new jersey and connecticut. about 55% -- new york is also a major transportation hub. airline industry has been grounded ever since sandy blew in. let's get to cnbc's courtney reagan at laguardia, the region's hardest hit airport. before we get to when things will get back to normal, court, you have been training very, very hard for the new york marathon which is this weekend. i know you even went through an injury to get to this marathon. if it is postponed or canceled by mayor bloomberg, we're waiting to hear what happens with that, how would you feel? >> reporter: quite honestly, i'd be really, really disappointed. devon stated maybe. i've spent a lot of training time. i've worked really hard to ray money for pancreatic cancer research in memory of my aunt. it would be a really tough thing. i guess i sort of feel like what's the harm in running a race. if people can get here, wonderful. those that can't can be granted to run next year.

that's what the marathon is saying right now. they're moving the cancellation date all the way back to november 3rd if those runners can't make it. >> okay. we seem to have a bit of a technical difficulty with courtney. we'll get back to her as soon as we can. brian? investor minds here on the east coast need to know what to do with their money going forward. u.s. equity strategist at morgan stanley, i don't want to talk about trading and the storm. all right? things are too serious for that. but i will ask you this, from now to the end of the year, should we make any moves on our portfolios? >> well, there's obviously a lot of things that can happen in the next couple of weeks. i think the key signals are going to be the jobs data report and of course the election. people's perceptions about the economic trajectory following the election. so clearly there could be some volatility in the market between now and year end. >> where do you think the year enis going to end in terms of the s&p then, adam? >> my guess right now is that

the next meaningful move is probably lower not higher. but it is really about the earnings trajectory. there are a number of things that could matter, perceptions about 2013's economy recovery or potential recovery there. and then obviously the key is what multiple you're going to pay for corporate earnings. woe really focus a lot, we think about the market, on both the earnings and the multiple that pe ratio, that price to earnings ratio you pay for the earnings. i think the likelihood in our mind that the earnings trajectory continues to be weak between now and year en. >> what is the economic impact of sandy? i know ihs global is predicting that 0.6 percentage points are going to be shaved off gdp between october and december but long term, say things like rebuilding, construction, that kind of thing is going to help offset and it will be barely a bump. what do you think? >> well, our economics team would argue that you do get a short-term negative here and that a lot of that -- maybe not all of it -- but a lot of it can be made up the first part of

next year. it is probably, while tragic and huge in its implications for certain individuals, probably not that big of a deal for gdp relative to things like the fiscal cliff, relative to maybe some grand bargain politically that can be happening in the backdrop which would include things like repatriation of cash. so, sure, it's a negative in the near term but i don't think it is enough to really make things worse than some of those other major hurdles to clear. >> any black swan before the end of the year? >> well, obviously there could always be -- >> storm seems like one. >> yeah. clearly it was bad. but i think if you really talk about things that could impact corporate profitability and the market multiple meaningfully, they probably would include more fear about the fiscal cliff and whether or not there could be some work done on that this year. it could include something heating up in europe again. and probably third would be anything on the oil price or related to supply fears out of of the middle east.

>> scott adams, thank you very much. >> take care. we've heard all kinds of estimates on damages from sandy. of course we were just talking about one of them. as of now, it is not in the top fi five. we'll talk about the complexity of submitting claims. as we all know, there are going to be a lot of them. if we want to improve our schools... ... what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ... nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers

so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. hahahaha! hooohooo, hahaha! this is awesome! folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. i'd say happier than a slinky on an escalator. get happy. get geico. melons!!! oh yeah!! well that was uncalled for. folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy, ronny? happier than gallagher at a farmers' market. get happy. get geico. and you don't want to miss it with thinkorswim by td ameritrade. you get knock-your-socks-off tools, simple one-click orders, real-time paper trading to hone your skills, plus anytime you need it support. ♪ stocks, options, futures, and forex. get your trading on track. thinkorswim by td ameritrade.

trade commission free for 60 days, plus get up to $600 when you open an account.

i'm bill griffeth. coming up on "closing bell," wall street goes back to work. don't miss maria's first on cnbc interview with bob greinfeld. all that and much more on what has been a surreal day in the financial district down here in lower manhattan. see you at the top of the hour. >> thank you very much, bill. let's walk you through a

non-storm related name that's nonetheless making news so it is good for us to cover. disney down today after a really big announcement late yesterday. >> yeah. that's a big announcement. they're going to buy lucas films for $4 billion. right? george lucas, "star wars" franchise. they want to make another one here. disney shares down little over 2% now. one of the bigger decliners on the dow. listen, lot of people saying don't mess with "star wars." six was enough. lot of people saying three was enough. i'm just sayin'. but we got more coming out in 2015. >> plenty of "star wars" geeks who would like a 7 and an 8. >> herb came over and wanted to talk more. sorry, herb, western union's revenue came in lighter than consensus. they had executives depart the company, all kinds of downgrades and price cuts today. western union real taking it on the chin. talking of herb, this is actually one of herb's favorite

stocks to talk about. herbalite which is today soaring on earnings. >> it was. it was at the open. it is still off. shouldn't say soaring. that's my fault, folks. it was soaring a little bit more at the open. third quarter earnings of $1.04. $1.02 billion in revenue. both figures exceed the capital iq consensus estimate. issued upside, full year fiscal fourth quarter guidance, stock positive year to date. herb would probably have something to say on it if he was here, but he's not so he won't. >> calvin klein, 51.75 billion inn in capital and stock. thank you, markie mark. calvin klein, that's the deal. hopefully courtney reagan's connection is good now.

courtney, talk to us a little bit more about what flights we're seeing in terms of the resumption of service. 18,000-plus flights were canceled. how they looking now? >> reporter: that's right. well, cnbc has confirmed that delta would like to resume flying in and out of laguardia tomorrow but that's only if and when the port authority and the faa give it clearance to do so. right now it's still being assessed. jfk and newark have begun accepting flights and sending flights out but this video shows you why laguardia is still not quite there yet. there are some airport and airline employees here today that are working to try to get things back up and running. a lot of progress has been made. if we can show the picture that i took just a couple hours ago. this originally had been flooded multiple feet. but now only a couple puddles remain. so we're getting there. new york governor andrew cuomo says that 230 flights have arrived at jfk. 170 have taken off. that's a little bit less than average but that's likely what

we'll see once laguardia does get back up and running. again, right now we don't know when that's going to happen. jfk and newark both also accepting cargo planes. fedex said they did have flights arrive this morning. back to you. >> courtney, thank you very much. another group to watch obviously are the insurers. that's a no-brainer. but what are wall street analysts saying? morgan stanley had a note saying that, while it is early, they're reporting $5 billion to $15 billion in insured losses. there will be more uninsured losses. this would make hurricane sandy one of the top 15 property and casualty insurance events of all time. morgan stanley cutting estimates by an average of 26% across the board. but, they did say there were names they liked such as mmc. marsh mclellan group. that stock up fractionally today. >> those insurance claims sure to be an issue in coming days as people try to get money to rebuild what they've lost. our next guest says it is going to be a complicated road for storm victims. let's -- spencer, great of you

to join us today. will insurers do the right thing or what's the likelihood they're going to say, huh-uh, this is flood damage, not my problem. >> i hope they'll do the right thing. i think certainly they came through for the most part on katrina. it is going to depend on the company and the contract you're with. we are seeing it along the coastlines of new jersey and new york, long island. you are seeing a huge problem where we don't know if it was flood or wind that took down the house or made the damage. no time no more than now it is important to have a trusted choice insurance agent to help you through the process. >> are they going to pay? >> well, i think so. >> hope is not a strategy! nobody buys insurance because they hope they're going to get paid back. >> well, i'm quite confident the industry has proven itself throughout history that it does the right thing. these are tough times and again, it is going to depend on the insurance company but i'm very confident that the institute is going to come through like they have, as always. >> will fema be able to cover

the flood victims who do not have a policy that covers floods? >> fema's going to be tough. fema currently has a huge debt from katrina still trying to pay off. it's a fairly run program. it is really going to depend on lo lawmakers to step in and fund it, i suppose. it's not a private industry mandate and we'll see what happens. >> on that point though, and with all due respect to obviously people who live in flood zones, but at what point do we say we should not be rebuilding anymore in areas that are prone to floods, especially if we're getting so many more natural disasters of this kind more an more these days? >> that's something that congress is grappling with right now, is how do you continue to provide coverage for either somebody that is in a flood prone area or somebody who's already had one or two losses. when you look at percentage of losses that the flood program pays out, very high percentage of those losses are to people who have already had a previous loss. right now in congress as they work on the flood program to make it even better, they are

addressing those issues. >> let's get back to like getting this done, getting paid back. right? that's why you're here. what can people do? what strategies, tips, can people take in submitting claims to make it, a, more likely they will be get paid back, and, b, faster? >> brian, it is great time to make sure you work with your independent agent and hopefully you have one to go and address these issues. because it is not only important how you word the claim initially, if you talk about water, they're going to just automatically slap flood on it. you want to talk about winds, it is going to end up on a homeowner's policy, not a flood policy. the agent can help you. rely on your agent. this is why we are in business right now. these are times that we thrive. this is when we are here to help. use us to find to help you find somebody to clean out your basement but document, document, document and make sure that you keep your agent informed. >> good. now we're getting somewhere. help us out a little bit more. what kind of language should we be using? >> well, just make sure that if

you don't know if your house was damage by wind or water, don't just make a statement because it is important how you word things. the contract is going to react differently. so again, work with your agent to make sure that he or she who is a professional can actually submit the claim in the proper fashion. >> how long is it going to take? i mean based on past experience, can this be weeks and weeks before people can actually get a proper claim in and get it paid back? >> well, obviously it is huge volume. but we have the other problem where people can't get to their homes. you have a duty as a homeowner to do whatever you need to do immediately after a loss to prevent further damage. if you look at some of the barrier ilan in new jersey where you aren't allowed on the island for two more weeks, it is tough to secure your property. so i think it is going to be a long haul, only because these are really strange -- this is a really strange storm in that people can't get to their property to assess the damage. zplf course, not just property damage. it will be vehicle damage and all kinds of other damage we need to talk about as well. we've got it leave it there but thanks for your advice.

spencer houldin. later on today on "the closing bell," maria bartiromo will talk to the at 4:30 on cnbc. post sandy, stores are scrambling to stock their shelves from milk to roofing supplies but restocking is not going to be easy. so what about the stores that sell clothes, shoes, food, eggs, whatever? we headed for a fall season with lowe's supply. for many, nexium helps relieve

heartburn symptoms caused by acid reflux disease. osteoporosis-related bone fractures low magnesium levels have been seen with nexium. possible side effects include headache, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. talk to your doctor about nexium. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 gives me tools that help me find opportunities more easily. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can even access it from the cloud and trade on any computer. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and with schwab mobile, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can focus on trading anyplace, anytime... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 until i choose to focus on something else. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trade at charles schwab for $8.95 a trade. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 open an account and trade up to tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 6 months commission-free online equity trading tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with a $50,000 deposit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-866-294-5373.

all right, just quickly folks mayor bloomberg giving an update on the city discussing where we stand, where we're going and he may make a decision about the new york marathon, something we talked about certainly any news making items that comes out of that press conference, you, my friends, will be the first to do. today lumber prices soaring on expectations, all the rebuilding after hurricane sandy will increase demand and speaking of lumber, shares of lumber liquidators up 3% adding to an already unbelievable year where the stock has gone up 200%, all of the home building stores doing well today, mandy. >> what will the cost of superstorm sandy be to the

retailers. great to have you on the show today, mary. stores standing to benefit from potential reconstruction, to what extent is it short lived? it pulls demand forward. >> yes it does. what's going to happen here is that what we would have spent on some of our more discretionary items and fashion items are going to be pushed to more practical items like lumber but also home and garden supplies, things we didn't think about even two weeks ago. so they're going to push those forward and then we have to see after the cleanup what happens with the all important black friday weekend. >> absolutely, talking of all important i believe the first week in november, can account for some retailers revenue up through 20%, right? i would imagine there are a lot of people who can't get out there, as we talked a moment, can't get money from an atm, various difficulties. how much will be lost of that really important week? >> quite honestly if the

individuals who are at the heads of government can't say today, i certainly am not in a position to say because we'll have to wait and see what kind of impact. there are big stores across the country who have major locations in new york, new jersey, connecticut, and they are very, you know, largely impacted. think about macy's herald square alone and all of the neighbors stores. it's big. >> okay, but here is the question, mary. >> yes. >> if i want a pair of jeans i can't buy the jeans because the score is close store is closed. i will still purchase the jeans or does it steal money away? >> it depends how much you were impacted individually by this storm and what your spendability is. if you were in the top 3% i suspect you'll buy the jeans and you might buy a luxury pair but if it's somebody who is more in the middle of america in terms of income, they're going to think twice about it because they have to assess their personal damage and how much they'll be reimbursed for and

evaluate whether the denim purchase is critical. >> are there any retailers out there you see at this stage that can see a net benefit from this and those that see a net negative from this? >> yes a net benefit aside from the ones that were already mentioned we can see a brand like t.j. maxx where they carry quality discounted apparel, but also home, they have a lot of home product, ross stores although it's not northeast centric but a lot of places where they have value for the product and once everything is cleared out not to be, you know, too soon on this, people will go back to the malls and hopefully it will be in time for the holidays but again the more important thing is how does everybody get cleaned up and be safe and resume somewhat of a normality. >> and of course we're praying for all of those people. thank you very much mary epner. >> thank you so much. we're taking a quick break.

we're still waiting to hear whether or not the new york marathon scheduled for this sunday is still going to go ahead. the race organizers say it's 100% up to mayor bloomberg to make that call. stay tuned. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. ♪ make it worth watching. ♪ the new 2013 lexus ls. an entirely new pursuit.

when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. anncr: every president inherits few have faced so many. four years later... our enemies have been brought to justice. our heroes are coming home. assembly lines are humming again. there are still challenges to meet.

children to educate. a middle class to rebuild. but the last thing we should do is turn back now. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message. mayor bloomberg saying the recovery continues, trying to get power on to all of lower manhattan. 34th street south is without power and doing what they can